VI

In spite of her tearful assertion that she knew she would not sleep a

wink, Tessie was soon dreaming of her new kingdom and of Mr. Bill. Not

once did shabby Joe Cary intrude on her dream of glory. It seemed only a

minute from the time she crept shiveringly into bed beside Granny,

before Granny was shaking her shoulder.

"After nine o'clock, Tessie!" she was calling. "If you're going to

Mifflin to get your ma's and pa's wedding license at ten, you'd better

get up right away!"

Tessie opened her eyes slowly and reluctantly. She was afraid of what

they would see. Yes, there was Granny calling her as she called her

every morning. There was the ugly old bureau and the crayon portrait of

her grandfather. Of course, she had been dreaming. She wasn't a queen.

She had never been at the Waloo for dinner with the wonderful Mr. Bill.

She would have to get up and put on her old sateen and go and sell

aluminum in the Evergreen basement. She wished she hadn't dreamed that

Uncle Pete had died and made her a queen. Such a dream as that made it

harder than ever to waken. She had known all the time that it was only a

dream. Such wonderful things never happened to poor working girls. And

if it really was nine o'clock, she was afraid to imagine how Mr. Walker

would rebuke her for her tardiness. Why had Granny let her sleep when

Granny knew that she would be fined if she were late?

"And your friend, that Mr. Bill, stopped here half an hour ago on his

way to the store," went on Granny, shaking out Tessie's clothes and

hanging them on a chair. "We got to get you some new things, Tessie.

These ain't royal. They don't do credit to your poor Uncle Pete, who's

been so good to you. Mr. Bill said he stopped at the police station, and

the police told him that we were right last night when we said that man

on the porch was hit on the head. A friend came for him, and after he

had talked to him, he told the police just how it was. The colored man

was walking along the street, when all of a sudden he didn't know

nothing. I don't suppose he could have upset my closets if he was

unconscious, and so long as nothing's missing, I ain't going to worry.

But there certainly were queer doings last night. You hurry right along,

Tessie. Your coffee's all ready, and I warmed up the liver. No knowing

where we'll be for dinner to-night, and we can't be wasteful even if we

are queens."

There it was, that most disturbing word! Tessie swung her feet over the

side of the bed and stared at her grandmother, who was already dressed

in her black alpaca instead of her morning calico, and whose front hair

must have been surprised to find itself out of curling pins at nine

o'clock in the morning.

"Then it's all true!" she faltered. She told herself again that it

couldn't be true. It just could not be true. She thought she would die

if it wasn't true, but she knew it wasn't.

"What's true?" questioned Granny, who was putting the room to rights.

"That I'm a queen?" Tessie blushed hotly, as she asked the question. It

was so perfectly ridiculous and unbelievable, and yet Granny talked as

if it might be true.

Granny stood still with Tessie's worn blue serge suit in one hand and a

clothesbrush in the other. "Of course you're a queen!" The firm

confident tone sent a shiver of delight down Tessie's spine. "Didn't

your Uncle Pete die and make you a queen? Come down just as soon as

you're dressed, Tessie. We ain't got time to waste to-day."

Even when Bert Douglas drove up in a shining touring car, Tessie could

not believe that she was to ride in it, although Bert told her that she

was, and he for one was mighty glad that she was.

"We have a corking day!" he exclaimed, with an approving glance at the

cloudless sky. "And we'll have a corking ride. I'm glad your people were

married sixty miles from Waloo. This is just a formality, you know, Miss

Gilfooly. We all know that you really are the Queen of the Sunshine

Islands. We don't need any certificates." And he laughed joyously. It

was so strange and unbelievable and delightful that he was to drive a

young queen to Mifflin and back.

"It's so wonderful that I can't believe it," Tessie told him earnestly,

and her voice quivered with the wonder of it. She looked speculatively

at the tonneau of the big car. There was no one in it. "Could we take my

grandmother, Mr. Douglas?" She raised her big blue eyes appealingly.

"She would enjoy the ride. And my brother Johnny? He's a Boy Scout."

"Sure, we can take all the royal family," chuckled Bert. "There's plenty

of room, and we'll feel safer to have a Scout with us." He laughed again

as he hospitably opened the tonneau door.

Mrs. Scanlon stood at her window and watched Granny and Johnny settle

themselves proudly in the car. She saw Tessie take the seat next to the

wheel, and she was green with envy from her red hair to her patched

black shoes. She had heard the news, and in her heart she wished that

she had had a son to run away to sea and be a king. "My Lil would make a

better-looking queen than that washed-out Tessie Gilfooly," she thought,

as she watched them from behind the skimpy curtain. "Lil's suit was new

this spring, and that blue dud Tessie has on is a year old if it's a

day. I don't believe it's really true! Such things don't happen! Queen,

indeed!" And she sniffed loudly and elevated her long thin nose because

little Tessie Gilfooly had come home with some ridiculous story about

being a queen.

Jonah, Johnny's dog--a mongrel with a most rakish brown spot on his

white face--jumped wistfully around the car. Jonah wanted to drive to

Mifflin too. He saw no reason why he should be left at home alone.

"Could we take him?" asked Granny, eager for the family to enjoy the

ride as a family. "He'd enjoy it."

And Jonah joined the two in the tonneau.

"Just as well he's going," muttered Mrs. Scanlon. "I wouldn't have no

time to feed anybody's dog to-day!" And to show how little she cared

about the good fortune which had come to her neighbors, she took her

chairs and tables out of the parlor and gave the room a thorough

cleaning.

Bert was right. It was a wonderful day--a blue and gold day. There was

not a cloud in the sky, nor a care in the car. The road to Mifflin was

velvet smooth, so that the drive, as Bert had prophesied, was

delightful. It was no time at all before they were in front of the red

brick building which was Mifflin's new Court House. But when they went

in and demanded a copy of the record of the marriage of John Gilfooly

and Teresa Andrews, which had been solemnized in Mifflin twenty years

ago, the clerk could not find the record.

"That's funny!" he exclaimed. "It was here yesterday, but it isn't here

to-day!" He looked puzzled.

"Did you see it yesterday?" demanded Bert, with all the importance of a

six-months lawyer.

"Sure I saw it yesterday. A man came in and asked for a copy. Funny

thing! In all the time I've been here, no one has ever asked about that

license. And now yesterday a man wanted it and to-day you want it." The

coincidence impressed him as so strange that he blinked.

"Was he a black man and did he have a tattooed nose?" asked Tessie

eagerly.

The clerk shook his head. "No, he had light hair and a big nose with

freckles all over it. He was what you would call a blond. With a big

nose," he insisted almost as if he thought it was quite unusual for a

blond to have a nose at all.

Tessie looked at Bert, and at Granny and Johnny. But not one of them

could tell her anything about a blond with a big nose. Granny could only

shake her head.

"He must have sneaked the record when I went out to look at the fire,"

the clerk said indignantly. "Ferguson's store had a little blaze

yesterday, and when I heard the fire engine I naturally went to the

door. But I can't have this sort of thing," he added querulously. "I

can't have my records stolen!"

"No, I shouldn't think you could," agreed Bert. "And you had better find

out who stole this record."

"I shall!" The clerk was quite offended because Bert had thought it

necessary to tell him what to do. "I'll call the sheriff right away."

And he bustled over to the telephone.

"But--but why should any one steal my father's and mother's marriage

license?" Tessie could not imagine why any one would steal a piece of

paper. Money or a jewel--the Tear of God even--could be used, but a

piece of paper----

Bert smiled at her puzzled face. "Some one might want to make it

impossible for you to prove that you are John Gilfooly's eldest child,"

he explained carefully.

Tessie gasped. "The idea! But whoever would?" She could not imagine.

Granny bristled indignantly. "Well, they can't do that!" she declared.

"Not while I have breath in my body to say she is! I guess I know!"

"Sure you do!" And Bert grinned at her.

But Granny wanted more than smiles. She wanted action--immediate action.

"What are we going to do now?" she demanded. "Can't Tessie be a queen

unless she has her ma's and pa's wedding license?"

"I don't see why you need any old paper," put in Johnny. "If you want

to know about the wedding of father and mother, all you have to do is to

ask Granny. She was at the wedding, weren't you, Granny?"

Granny turned to gaze at him with pride. "Bless the boy!" she exclaimed

in honest admiration. "Of course I was there! And I can tell the lawyers

all about it! That was a bright thought, Johnny, but I'm glad it didn't

come to you before. If you'd had it in Waloo we'd have missed a pleasant

ride. I can tell you all about the wedding," she said to Bert, and there

was much triumph in her voice, "all about the bride's dress and the

refreshments and everything!"

"I don't believe that your evidence will be enough, Mrs. Gilfooly," Bert

said reluctantly and regretfully, for he would have preferred to tell

Granny that her story of the Gilfooly-Andrews wedding would be

sufficient to place Tessie on any throne. "You are too near a relative

to be disinterested. That's what the court would say," he explained

hastily as Granny snorted.

"My soul and body!" She stared at him. "As if I'd lie about my own son

or my own granddaughter! But there were other folks at the wedding,"

she, remembered joyously. "The Hortons, who live over on Olive street,

were there. Sophie Horton was Tessie's mother's bridesmaid, and Sam

Horton knocked over a piano lamp the night of the wedding and came near

burning up the bride. He'll remember and be glad to tell you that my

son John married Teresa Andrews right and proper. And that ain't all,"

went on Granny, who could accomplish great things when she began little

things, "the man who married John and Teresa and baptized Tessie is

alive to this day and living in this very town. We've only got to go to

the Reverend Townshend's house to hear all about it. I suppose the law

would believe a regular minister if it wouldn't believe a loving

grandmother," she said to Bert, with a decided tinge of resentment in

her hearty voice.

Bert laughed apologetically. "That's fine! But you understand, Mrs.

Gilfooly, it is because you are so close to Miss Gilfooly that your

evidence wouldn't be sufficient. The court might suspect such a near

relative, but the word of the minister who married Miss Gilfooly's

parents should be enough for any court."

"I should think so!" snorted Granny, who had nothing but contempt for a

court which would not believe a grandmother.

They drove through the pretty streets of Mifflin to the home of Mr.

Townshend, which was almost hidden by shrubbery and vines, and the Boy

Scout rang the bell loudly. But Mr. Townshend was in Waloo visiting his

sister, and the young granddaughter, who answered the bell, had never

heard of the Gilfoolys.

"Never mind!" exclaimed Granny cheerfully, for Tessie looked as if she

did mind. "We know where to go now for what we want, and that's

everything, no matter what you're looking for. You say Reverend

Townshend's sister lives on Tenth Avenue South?" she asked the young

granddaughter. "Mr. Douglas will just drive us there and hear with his

own ears what Reverend Townshend has to say."

"Sure I'll drive you!" Bert said. "That's my job!" And he looked as if

he liked his job enormously.

But black luck preceded them, for when they returned to Waloo and drove

to Tenth Avenue South, they learned that the Reverend Townshend had been

knocked down by an automobile as he was crossing a street that

afternoon, and was lying in the hospital with concussion of the brain.

And they found, on driving to Olive street, that the Hortons had gone to

Vermont for the summer.

"I don't believe I ever was born!" Tessie was almost in tears. Her lips

quivered. So did her voice.

"Tut, tut!" rebuked her grandmother. "There were fifty-six folks, as I

remember, at that wedding, and it will be funny if I can't find some of

them. You don't want to get discouraged at the beginning of anything,

Tessie, not if you ever want to see the end of it."

"Why don't you drop it, Tess?" advised Joe Cary, when he heard about the

blond man with a big nose, the stolen marriage record, and about the

Reverend Townshend who was in the hospital with concussion of the brain.

"The Fates seem to be against you! So are some people, I should judge.

There is evidently some one who doesn't want you to be the Queen of the

Sunshine Islands. Look at last night! Look at to-day! Why do you want to

be a queen, anyway?" He asked the question as he would have asked why

she wanted to be a salesgirl, or why she did not want to be a

stenographer.

Tessie stared at him. The idea of asking such a question! Joe Cary was

crazy! And she told him so. "You talk as if being a queen was like

selling aluminum in the Evergreen!" she exclaimed indignantly.

"It isn't as decent!" cried Joe, and then Tessie knew, beyond a doubt,

that he was crazy.

"You can't stop being a queen if you are one!" she flared.

"Why can't you?" demanded Joe. "Can't you abdicate? Seems to me I've

read of several kings and queens who were glad to abdicate. You don't

have to be a queen unless you please, Tessie Gilfooly!" He actually did

seem to think that being a queen was like selling aluminum.

"Joe--Joe Cary--" she began in exasperation, and then she startled him

by bursting into tears--"you--you never want me to have any f-fun!" she

hiccuped.

"Oh, great Scott, Tess!" he said helplessly, and he would have taken her

in his arms and kissed the tears away, she was so little and sweet and

unreasonable, but Granny snatched her from him.

"There, there, my lamb!" she crooned. "You're all tired out. You just

come to your old Granny. There's some folks," she said over her shoulder

to Joe, "who are quick enough to tell other folks what to do, but I

wonder what they would say if they were to find themselves kings."

Joe stared at her, and then he laughed. "I know what I would do," he

declared promptly. "I never would be a king! Not for a minute!" He

seemed proud of himself--of what he would be.

"Then you'd be a coward, Joe Cary, and a shirk!" Granny pricked the

balloon of his pride with her frankness. "When the good Lord puts

responsibilities and duties on a body's shoulders, he can't throw 'em

off without being a coward and a shirk. What he has to do is to carry

them the best he knows how. Now I want you to stop picking on Tessie

just because she's a queen. It isn't her fault, and you needn't talk to

her as if it was. We don't none of us know why she was picked out to

look after those queer folks in the Pacific Ocean, but I guess the good

Lord knows His business, and He knows the Gilfoolys. It isn't any crime

to be a queen. It's a privilege, and we're all going to enjoy it with

Tessie. I don't want to hear any more picking," she repeated sternly.

"All right, Granny," Joe murmured meekly, but his eyes twinkled. "Just

as you say. Tess can think she is Queen of England, and I shan't say

another word!"